# CVE-2016-7072: Denial of service in pdns

> Remote unauthenticated attackers can cause a denial of service in PowerDNS Authoritative Server by exhausting web server file descriptors via TCP connections.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Sep 2018
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2016-7072, GHSA-64pc-8jh2-hf6v, UBUNTU-CVE-2016-7072

## What is CVE-2016-7072?

CVE-2016-7072 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 10 Sep 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue has been found in PowerDNS Authoritative Server before 3.4.11 and 4.0.2 allowing a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service by opening a large number of TCP connections to the web server. If the web server runs out of file descriptors, it triggers an exception and terminates the whole PowerDNS process. While it's more complicated for an unauthorized attacker to make the web server run out of file descriptors since its connection will be closed just after being accepted, it might still be possible.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-7072?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Powerdns Authoritative.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-7072?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2016-7072 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7072 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-7072 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-7072 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 10 Sep 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2016-7072 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7072/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7072/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-7072
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-7072
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-7072

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-7072/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.